Holder defends Mirandizing Shahzad

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday defended the Mirandizing of Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the attempted Times Square car bombing, while senators had a mixture of praise and criticism for the timing of Shahzad’s arrest.

Asked during an Appropriations hearing whether the reading of Miranda rights had impeded the investigation, Holder said, “No, it did not. As we have seen in prior investigations, the giving of Miranda warnings has not deterred people from talking to us, and Mr. Shahzad is, in fact, continuing to cooperate with us.”

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Holder also stressed that the questioning of Shahzad before he was read his Miranda rights went far beyond the 50-minute interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspect in the Christmas Day airplane bombing attempt. The brevity of that questioning had triggered sharp complaints from Republicans.

“The questioning under the public safety exception [to Miranda] far exceeded the amount of time that we had with Mr. Abdulmutallab,” Holder said.

“We made extensive use of the public safety exception before the decision was made to give them their Miranda warnings,” he said, adding that “a very substantial amount of information” was obtained through the un-Mirandized questioning.

Questions asked, he said, might include, “Are you acting alone? Are there other bombs that we need to be worried about? Are there other people flying in who are going to be helping you?”

But Holder heard a fair amount of grumbling from senators who felt that Shahzad should never have been able to board a plane for Dubai.

“There’s a lot of concern out there about why the suspect was not apprehended until the jet had pulled away from the gate,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said to Holder during the hearing. “One really has to wonder: Where was the failing here? What happened with this watch list? It makes you wonder whether or not there was a lapse in communication between the FBI and the TSA, or the FBI and other law enforcement agencies working at the airport.”

“Talking to me about watch lists is like chalk on a blackboard,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said, adding that airports and border stations should have been on “red alert” for Shahzad. “We’re really grouchy about the watch list and what happened. ... The president of the United States was volcanic after the Christmas Day bombing and ordered significant reforms. Once again, the watch list seemed to be dysfunctional.”

Holder said all aspects of the operation are being examined and noted that the Transportation Security Administration already has imposed new rules requiring airlines to update the lists more frequently.

“I’m never satisfied, even with an operation like this one, which I think we all have to understand was successful,” the attorney general said. “We have to always look at our failures, our successes, and figure out ways that on the next occasion we can be even better. ... If we were faced with a similar situation, I suspect that we would have detected him earlier than we did.”

FBI agents tracking Shahzad on Monday apparently lost him as he headed for JFK airport in New York. There, he reportedly purchased a ticket with cash and managed to board an Emirates flight for Dubai. The plane’s door had been closed in preparation for departure before agents ordered the jetway brought back and took Shahzad off the flight.

Mikulski said Holder is not the correct person to address weaknesses in the watch list procedures because the list is administered by the Department of Homeland Security and is based on data provided by an office overseen by the director of national intelligence.